The NHL playoffs are still a few days away, but the Red Wings announced a move that both makes sense and is incredibly infuriating.
Anthony Mantha being sent to Grand Rapids and Joakim Andersson staying with team according to Wings GM Ken Holland.
— Chuck Pleiness (@wingsfrontman) April 10, 2016
Mantha had a decent start to his career, scoring 2 goals and adding an assist in 10 games. Both goals came on the power play, and both came against Montreal. Despite getting dropped into the lineup in the middle of a very tight playoff race, Mantha never really looked out of place, initially playing with Pavel Datsyuk. However, with the Wings needing wins, the decision was made to drop Mantha down to the purgatory that is the 4th line for a couple of games before being a healthy scratch at the expense of Tomas Jurco and Joakim Andersson.
The decision to send Mantha makes sense because if he’s going to be sitting in the press box, he’s not going to develop even if it is the playoffs. At the same time, the Wings had an opportunity to get Mantha some meaningful minutes in the playoffs to see what he could do. Instead, they’ll make Andersson the healthy scratch and allow Mantha to get significantly more ice time with the Griffins as they try to win the Calder Cup.
